US not supporting Syrian army in hitting Daesh: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Ibrahim Mousawi, a political commentator in Beirut, about the Syrian army advancing past the provincial borders of Raqqah.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: What are the factors of success that the Syrian forces were able to advance into Raqqah, do you think?

Mousawi: Well this is a very important indication of the determination and the resolve of the Syrian leadership to push forward in order to recapture the territories that have been occupied by the terrorist group Daesh, terrorist groups and other allies in the region. This is one thing. And the other thing is that Syrian army has been able to achieve a lot and to make a very good accomplishment to take the initiative again and to push into its attacks against the terrorist groups.

It has always been ..., I mean we have been able to witness for quite some time that the terrorist groups, terrorist organizations have been launching consecutive attacks against the Syria army, recapturing territories and whatever.

Now if they are doing any offensive and they are doing offensives, they are trying to recapture what they have already lost but the initiative has been for quite some time in the arms of the Syrian military leadership. That is why we were able to see that they are accomplishing, they are achieving on ground more than any time before, thanks for the continuous support of the Islamic Republic of Iran, thanks for the presence of the allies, Hezbollah and the others, who came to fight against the terrorist groups and more importantly thanks for the Syrian army that has been able to push forward, to recapture, to liberate the territories and to defend the people at the place.   

Press TV: We were talking about Washington’s refusal to work with Moscow to bomb terrorist positions. What does this tell us about Washington’s sincerity in the fight against terrorism in Syria?

Mousawi: Sincerity is very over-exaggeration of a word to use when you want to talk about the United States and its promises and the way it delivers its promises and the pledges to the people, to the governments of the region. You are talking about sincerity with United States of America; this is a real joke actually. You are talking about a country that has always been the generator of the double standards, has always been the inventor of the double standards and the hypocrisy and the inconsistency.

We know very well this is very biased, this is very supportive of the terrorist groups, all of the terrorist groups have been made under the eyes and with the support of the United States. We have many testimonies from the US officials, former US officials who are now maybe retired and they come to tell you very well that the Daesh group and other Takfiri groups - al-Qaeda and other offshoots – they were made under the eyes and with the support and with the auspices, with the boost and the support of United States of America.

That is why it is very normal to see that the Americans are not pushing in any way to attack or to help or to collaborate with the Russians to fight the Takfiri groups because they are using them as bargaining chips, they are using them to blackmail the region and the governments and they can do the dirty work that the United States does not want to do in its own hands.

So this is very apparent, this is very clear for all of the people, otherwise they have been procrastinating, they have been pushing not to allow for the designation of such groups as terror groups when they were. When they accepted that the Daesh and the al-Nusra are Takfiri groups, now they are procrastinating and they are not allowing for a real and direct hit against them.

They are not giving enough support, they are not giving enough collaboration to organize and arrange the hits against the Takfiri groups with Russia or even with the Syrian army. They are not allowing the Syrian army to do it by itself due to many reasons. We know very well that this is a very perfect game for the United States. That is why they do not want to bring the things into a resolve. They want to continue and to elongate and extend the crisis as much as they can because it boils down to their own interest. This would put them in a better position to blackmail and to make ... as many interests as they can. 

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